Friday our friends at Stats Canada came out with their Consumer Price Index for the year ending in January 2014 and it ran (year over year) at 1.5% (the previous month it was at 1.2%), which continues on with the less than 2.0% goals set by the Bank of Canada.
The graph showing inflation looks more dramatic than it actually is, given it is bobbing up and down around 2.0% mainly over the past little while.
One of the leading contributors is the price of electricity, and in Ottawa this is a very hot topic with Ottawa Hydro “changing their billing periods” and thus messing around with billing amounts and such. Ellen Roseman has written an article in the Ottawa SUN about it and there have been many horror stories so far with this “small administrative change”. Ontario Hydro has also promised astronomical fee rate hikes, that may make more of us look at Solar and other alternate power ideas much more seriously.
Stats Canada highlights this in the following statement:
The year-over-year increase in the CPI was led by higher shelter costs, which rose 2.1% in January. This followed a 1.9% gain in December. Electricity prices increased 4.7% in the 12 months to January, after rising 4.1% the previous month. Consumers also paid more for rent (+1.6%) and for homeowners’ home and mortgage insurance (+5.4%) in January compared with the same month a year earlier.
The scary part of this is for Ontarians, this is only going to get worse for the next few years. Thanks Minister Chiarelli for sharing this gift with us.
Inflation last year at this time?
Inflation at this time last year was 0.5%, holy cow!
The Big Book of Price Increases
No relation to the Simpson’s own Big Book of British Smiles, but one of the large price tables from the Stats Canada website, well worth checking out.
Consumer Price Index and major components, Canada Not seasonally adjusted
|
|
Relative importance1 |
January 2013 |
December 2013 |
January 2014 |
Dec 2013 to |
Jan 2013 |
|
|
% |
(2002=100) |
% change | |||
| All-items Consumer Price Index (CPI) |
100.002 |
121.3 |
122.7 |
123.1 |
0.3 |
1.5 |
| Food |
16.60 |
131.6 |
132.5 |
133.0 |
0.4 |
1.1 |
| Shelter |
26.26 |
127.8 |
129.9 |
130.5 |
0.5 |
2.1 |
| Household operations, furnishings and equipment |
12.66 |
113.5 |
114.7 |
114.7 |
0.0 |
1.1 |
| Clothing and footwear |
5.82 |
87.9 |
89.4 |
89.2 |
-0.2 |
1.5 |
| Transportation |
19.98 |
126.7 |
128.5 |
129.2 |
0.5 |
2.0 |
| Health and personal care |
4.93 |
118.5 |
118.1 |
118.3 |
0.2 |
-0.2 |
| Recreation, education and reading |
10.96 |
103.7 |
105.3 |
104.7 |
-0.6 |
1.0 |
| Alcoholic beverages and tobacco products |
2.79 |
138.9 |
141.2 |
140.9 |
-0.2 |
1.4 |
| Special aggregates | ||||||
| Core CPI3 |
84.91 |
119.6 |
121.0 |
121.3 |
0.2 |
1.4 |
| All-items CPI excluding energy |
91.44 |
118.7 |
119.9 |
120.1 |
0.2 |
1.2 |
| Energy4 |
8.56 |
152.8 |
158.9 |
160.2 |
0.8 |
4.8 |
| Gasoline |
4.62 |
171.6 |
179.7 |
179.5 |
-0.1 |
4.6 |
| All-items CPI excluding food and energy |
74.85 |
115.9 |
117.1 |
117.3 |
0.2 |
1.2 |
| Goods |
48.18 |
112.9 |
113.8 |
114.2 |
0.4 |
1.2 |
| Services |
51.82 |
129.6 |
131.7 |
131.9 |
0.2 |
1.8 |
- 2011 CPI basket weights at January 2013 prices, Canada, effective February 2013. Detailed weights are available under the Documentation section of survey 2301 (www.statcan.gc.ca/imdb-bmdi/2301-eng.htm).
- Figures may not add up to 100% as a result of rounding.
- The Bank of Canada’s core index excludes eight of the CPI’s most volatile components (fruit, fruit preparations and nuts; vegetables and vegetable preparations; mortgage interest cost; natural gas; fuel oil and other fuels; gasoline; inter-city transportation; and tobacco products and smokers’ supplies) as well as the effects of changes in indirect taxes on the remaining components. For additional information on the core CPI, consult the Bank of Canada website (www.bankofcanada.ca/rates/indicators/key-variables/inflation-control-target/).
- The special aggregate “Energy” includes: electricity; natural gas; fuel oil and other fuels; gasoline; and fuel, parts and supplies for recreational vehicles.
Inflation in 2014
How did Inflation go in 2014?
- Gas Prices Drive Down Inflation in December 2014 to 1.5%
- Low Gas Prices puts Inflation at 2.0% In November
- Inflation Stays High Despite Lower Gas in October
- Inflation at 2.1 for August in Canada
- Inflation Stays up in June 2014 in Canada
- Who said Inflation ? CPI Up in Canada
- CPI Jumps to 2.0 in April 2014 in Canada
- Inflation Jumps in March 2014
- Inflation at 1.1%, That is Low for February
- CPI Up A Little to Start 2014 in Canada
- Christmas CPI Data Ho Ho Ho
